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Charles Sackville, 2nd Duke of Dorset
Charles Sackville, 2nd Duke of Dorset (6 February 1711 - 5 January 1769), was an English poet and politician.Barker, 88. Life Sackville was born on 6 Feb. 1711, and baptised at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields on the 25th of the same month, the eldest son of Lionel Cranfield Sackville, 1st duke of Dorset, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Lieutenant-general Walter Philip Colyear. He was educated at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated on 27 November 1728, and earned an M.A. on 15 September 1730. Sackville had a long and bitter quarrel with his father, whom he actually opposed in his own boroughs, and became an intimate friend of Frederick, prince of Wales. At the general election in April 1734 he unsuccessfully contested Kent, but was returned for East Grinstead, which he continued to represent until his appointment as high steward of the honor of Otford on 26 May 1741. On 30 October 1744, he married Grace Boyle, the only daughter and heiress of Richard, 2nd viscount Shannon, by his 2nd wife, Grace, daughter of John Senhouse of Netherhall, Cumberland. She is described by Horace Walpole as "very short, very plain, and very yellow: a vain girl, full of Greek and Latin, and music, and painting; but neither mischievous nor political" (Walpole, Reign of George II, i. 76). She succeeded Lady Archibald Hamilton as mistress of the robes to Augusta, princess of Wales, in July 1745, and became the object of the prince's most devoted attention. She died on 10 May 1763, and was buried at Walton-on-Thames on the 17th. Sackville sat for Sussex from January 1742 to June 1747, and was one of the lords of the treasury in Henry Pelham's administration from 23 Dec. 1743 to June 1747, when he was appointed master of the horse to Frederick, prince of Wales. He was returned for Old Sarum at a by-election in December 1747, and continued to represent that borough until the dissolution of parliament in April 1754. He was without a seat in the House of Commons during the whole of the next parliament. At the general election in March 1761 he was again elected for East Grinstead. He succeeded his father as Duke of Dorset on 9 Oct. 1765, and took his seat in the House of Lords on 17 December. On 10 February 1766 he was admitted a member of the privy council, and sworn in as lord-lieutenant of Kent. Dorset was a dissolute and extravagant man of fashion. One of his chief passions was the direction of operas, in which he not only wasted immense sums of money, but "stood lawsuits in Westminster Hall with some of those poor devils for their salaries.' (Walpole, Reign of George II, 1847, i. 97; see also Walpole's Letters, 1857–9, i. 88, 140, 239–40, 244, et seq.). According to Lord Shelburne, Dorset's appearance towards the close of his life was "always that of a proud, disgusted, melancholy, solitary man," while his conduct savoured strongly of madness. He spoke little or not at all in the House of Peers, but he wrote a number of detached verses and A Treatise concerning the Militia in Four Sections, London, 1752, 8vo. He died at his house in St. James's Street, Piccadilly, on 5 January, 1769, aged 57, and was buried at Withyham, Sussex, on the 11th of the same month. Recognition His portrait, painted for the Dilettanti Society by George Knapton, was exhibited at South Kensington in 1868. Publications *''A Treatise Concerning the Militia; in four sections''. London: J. Millan, 1752.Search results = au:Charles Sackville 1769, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Nov. 6, 2016. See also *List of British poets References * . Wikisource, Nov. 8, 2016. Notes External links ;Poems *"To Mr. Pope: On reading Mr. Addison's account of the English poets" *"The Happy Husband" ;About *Charles Sackville (1711-1769) at English Poetry, 1579-1830 * Sackville, Charles (1711-1769) Category:18th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:English poets Category:Poets Category:1711 births Category:1769 deaths